arXiv subjects

Hua-Sheng Shao

Publications and source records attributed to Hua-Sheng Shao.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

RIP $H b \bar b$: How other Higgs production modes conspire to kill a rare signal at the LHC

The hadroproduction of a Higgs boson in association with a bottom-quark pair ($H b \bar b$) is commonly considered as the key process for directly probing the Yukawa interaction between the Higgs boson and the bottom quark ($y_b$). However, in the Standard-Model (SM) this process is also known to suffer from very large irreducible backgrounds from other Higgs production channels, notably gluon-fusion ($gg$F). In this paper we calculate for the first time the so-called QCD and electroweak complete-NLO predictions for $H b \bar b$ production, using the four-flavour scheme. Our calculation shows that not only the $gg$F but also the $ZH$ and even the vector-boson fusion channels are sizeable irreducible backgrounds. Moreover, we demonstrate that, at the LHC, the rates of these backgrounds are very large with respect to the "genuine" and $y_b$-dependent $H b \bar b$ production mode. In particular, no suppression occurs at the differential level and therefore backgrounds survive typical analysis cuts. This fact further jeopardises the chances of measuring at the LHC the $y_b$-dependent component of $H b \bar b$ production in the SM. Especially, unless $y_b$ is significantly enlarged by new physics, even for beyond-the SM scenarios the direct determination of $y_b$ via this process seems to be hopeless at the LHC.

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arXiv2020

Higgs boson pair production at N$^3$LO QCD

Understanding the Higgs potential by measuring its self-interactions is fundamental in answering several big questions, such as electroweak symmetry breaking, electroweak baryogenesis, electroweak phase transition, and electroweak vacuum stability. The most promising way to probe the Higgs potential is to detect Higgs boson pair final state at high-energy colliders. In this talk, we report a recent perturbative calculation for the di-Higgs gluon-fusion process by taking into account N$^3$LO QCD radiative corrections in the approximation of infinite top quark mass limit. Finite top quark mass effects are also incorporated with several approximate schemes, which are known to be crucial in phenomenological applications. We show a very good asymptotic perturbative convergence at $\mathcal{O}(α_s^5)$, and demonstrate that the remaining scale uncertainty is only at percent level.

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arXiv2020

Associated production in pp and heavy ion collisions

Associated particle production processes in pp and heavy ion collisions at the LHC are in particular interesting in the sense that they provide unique tools to study double parton scattering (DPS) mechanism. In this talk, I will first review the recent theoretical, phenomenological and experimental developments of DPS in pp collisions. Then, I will focus on the DPS studies in heavy ion collisions, and stress their roles in understanding the cold nuclear matter effects, such as the (poorly known) impact-parameter dependent nuclear parton densities.

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arXiv2020

Large-P_T inclusive photoproduction of J/psi in electron-proton collisions at HERA and the EIC

We study the inclusive J/psi production at large transverse momenta at lepton-hadron colliders in the limit when the exchange photon is quasi real, also referred to as photoproduction. Our computation includes the leading-P_T leading-v next-to-leading alpha_s corrections. In particular, we consider the contribution from J/psi plus another charm quark, by employing for the first time in quarkonium photoproduction the variable-flavour-number scheme. We also include a QED-induced contribution via an off-shell photon which remained ignored in the literature and which we show to be the leading contribution at high P_T within the reach of the EIC. In turn, we use our computation of J/psi+charm to demonstrate its observability at the future EIC and the EIC sensitivity to probe the non-perturbative charm content of the proton at high x.

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arXiv2020

$J/ψ$ meson production in association with an open charm hadron at the LHC: A reappraisal

We critically (re)examine the associated production process of a $J/ψ$ meson plus an open charm hadron at the LHC in the proton-proton ($pp$) and proton-lead ($p{\rm Pb}$) collisions. Such a process is very intriguing in the sense of tailoring to explore the double parton structure of nucleons and to determine the geometry of partons in nuclei. In order to interpret the existing $pp$ data with the LHCb detector at the center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV, we introduce two overlooked mechanisms for the double parton scattering (DPS) and single parton scattering (SPS) processes. Besides the conventional DPS mode, where the two mesons are produced almost independently in the two separate scattering subprocesses, we propose a novel DPS mechanism that the two constituent (heavy) quarks stemming from two hard scatterings can form into a composite particle, like the $J/ψ$ meson, during the hadronization phase. However, it turns out the corresponding contribution is small in $J/ψ+c\bar{c}$ hadroproduction. On the contrary, we point out that the resummation of the initial state logarithms due to gluon splitting into a charm quark pair is crucial to understand the LHCb measurement, which was overlooked in the literature. We perform a proper matching between the perturbative calculations in different initial-quark flavor number schemes, generically referring to the variable flavor number scheme. The new variable flavor number scheme calculation for the process strongly enhance the SPS cross sections, almost closing the discrepancies between theory and experiment. Finally, we present our predictions for the forthcoming LHCb measurement in $p{\rm Pb}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=8.16$ TeV. Some interesting observables are exploited to set up the control regions of the DPS signal and to probe the impact-parameter dependent parton densities in lead.

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arXiv2020

Rare two-body decays of the top quark into a bottom meson plus an up or charm quark

Rare two-body decays of the top quark into a neutral bottom-quark meson plus an up- or charm-quark: $t\to {\overline B}^0+ u, c$; $t\to {\overline B}^0_{s}+ c,u$; and $t \to Υ(nS)+ c,u$, are studied for the first time. The corresponding partials widths are computed at leading order in the non-relativistic QCD framework. The sums of all two-body branching ratios amount to $\mathcal{B}(t \to {\overline B}^0+ {\rm jet}) \approx \mathcal{B}(t \to {\overline B}^0_{s}+ {\rm jet}) \approx 4.2\cdot 10^{-5}$ and $\mathcal{B}(t \to Υ(nS)+ {\rm jet}) \approx 2\cdot 10^{-9}$, respectively. The feasibility to observe the $t\to {\overline B}^0_{(s)}+{\rm jet}$ decay is estimated in top-pair events produced in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 14, 100$ TeV at the LHC and FCC, respectively. Combining many exclusive hadronic ${\overline B}^0_{(s)}$ decays, with $J/ψ$ or $D^{0,\pm}$ final states, about 50 (16000) events are expected in 3 (20) ab$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity at the LHC (FCC), after typical selection criteria, acceptance, and efficiency losses. An observation of the two-body top-quark decay can also be achieved in the interesting $t\to b(\rm{jet})+c(\rm{jet})$ dijet final state, where the ${\overline B}^0_{(s)}$ decay products are reconstructed as a jet, with 5300 and 1.4 million signal events above backgrounds expected after selection criteria at the LHC and FCC, respectively. Such unique final states provide a new direct method to precisely measure the top-quark mass via simple 2-body invariant mass analyses.

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arXiv2020

Complete NLO QCD study of single- and double-quarkonium hadroproduction in the colour-evaporation model at the Tevatron and the LHC

We study the Single-Parton-Scattering (SPS) production of double quarkonia (J/psi+J/psi, J/psi+Upsilon, and Upsilon+Upsilon) in pp and pp(bar) collisions at the LHC and the Tevatron as measured by the CMS, ATLAS, LHCb, and D0 experiments in the Colour-Evaporation Model (CEM), based on the quark-hadron-duality, including Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) QCD corrections up to alpha_s^5. To do so, we also perform the first true NLO --up to alpha_s^4-- study of the p_T-differential cross section for single-quarkonium production. This allows us to fix the non-perturbative CEM parameters at NLO accuracy in the region where quarkonium-pair data are measured. Our results show that the CEM at NLO in general significantly undershoots these experimental data and, in view of the other existing SPS studies, confirm the need for Double Parton Scattering (DPS) to account for the data. Our NLO study of single-quarkonium production at mid and large p_T also confirms the difficulty of the approach to account for the measured p_T spectra; this is reminiscent of the impossibility to fit single-quarkonium data with the sole 3S18 NRQCD contribution from gluon fragmentation. We stress that the discrepancy occurs in a kinematical region where the new features of the improved CEM are not relevant.

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arXiv2020

Probing impact-parameter dependent nuclear parton densities from double parton scatterings in heavy-ion collisions

We propose a new method to determine the spatially or impact-parameter dependent nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) using the double parton scattering (DPS) processes in high-energy heavy-ion (proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus) collisions. We derive a simple generic DPS formula in nuclear collisions by accommodating both the nuclear collision geometry and the spatially dependent nuclear modification effect, under the assumption that the impact-parameter dependence of nPDFs is only related to the nuclear thickness function. While the geometric effect is widely adopted, the impact of the spatially dependent nuclear modification on DPS cross sections has been overlooked so far, which can, however, be significant when the initial nuclear modification is large. In turn, the DPS cross sections in heavy-ion collisions can provide useful information on the spatial dependence of nPDFs. They can be, in general, obtained in minimum-bias nuclear collisions, featuring the virtue of independence of Glauber modeling.

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arXiv2020

The gluon-fusion production of Higgs boson pair: N$^3$LO QCD corrections and top-quark mass effects

The Higgs boson pair production via gluon fusion at high-energy hadron colliders, such as the LHC, is vital in deciphering the Higgs potential and in pinning down the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism. We carry out the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) QCD calculations in the infinite top-quark mass limit and present predictions for both the inclusive and differential cross sections, albeit the differential distributions other than the invariant mass distribution of the Higgs boson pair are approximated at N$^3$LO. Such corrections are indispensable in stabilising the perturbative expansion of the cross section in the strong coupling $α_s$. At the inclusive level, the scale uncertainties are reduced by a factor of four compared with the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) results. Given that the inclusion of the top-quark mass effects is essential for the phenomenological applications, we use several schemes to incorporate the N$^3$LO results in the infinite top-quark mass limit and the next-to-leading order (NLO) results with full top-quark mass dependence, and present theoretical predictions for the (differential) cross sections in the proton-proton collisions at the centre-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=13,14,27$ and $100$ TeV. Our results provide one of the most precise theoretical inputs for the analyses of the Higgs boson pair events.

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arXiv2020

Higgs boson pair production via gluon fusion at N$^3$LO in QCD

We present next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) QCD predictions for the Higgs boson pair production via gluon fusion at hadron colliders in the infinite top-quark mass limit. Besides the inclusive total cross sections at various collision energies, we also provide the invariant mass distribution of the Higgs boson pair. Our results show that the N$^3$LO QCD corrections enhance the next-to-next-to-leading order cross section by $3.0\%$ ($2.7\%$) at $\sqrt{s}=13~(100)$ TeV, while the scale uncertainty is reduced substantially below $3\%$ ($2\%$). We also find that a judicious scale choice can significantly improve the perturbative convergence. For the invariant mass distribution, our calculation demonstrates that the N$^3$LO corrections improve the scale dependence but almost do not change the shape.

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arXiv2019

Automated simulations beyond the Standard Model: supersymmetry

The MadGraph5 aMC@NLO framework aims to automate all types of leading- and next-to-leading-order-accurate simulations for any user-defined model that stems from a renormalisable Lagrangian. In this paper, we present all of the key ingredients of such models in the context of supersymmetric theories. In order to do so, we extend the FeynRules package by giving it the possibility of dealing with different renormalisation options that are relevant to supersymmetric models. We also show how to deal with the problem posed by the presence of narrow resonances, thus generalising the so-called on-shell subtraction approaches. We extensively compare our total rate results with those of both Prospino2 and Resummino, and present illustrative applications relevant to the 13 TeV LHC, both at the total-rate and differential levels. The computer programs that we have used to obtain the predictions presented here are all publicly available.

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arXiv2019

Prompt ${J/ψ}$-pair production at the LHC: impact of loop-induced contributions and of the colour-octet mechanism

Prompt double-$J/ψ$ production at high-energy hadron colliders can be considered as a golden channel to probe double parton scatterings (DPS) --in particular to study gluon-gluon correlations inside the proton-- and, at the same time, to measure the distribution of linearly-polarised gluons inside the proton. Such studies however require a good control of both single and DPS in the respective regions where they are carried out. In this context, we have critically examined two mechanisms of single parton scatterings (SPS) that may be kinematically enhanced where DPS are thought to be dominant, even though they are either at higher orders in the strong-coupling or velocity expansion. First, we have considered a gauge-invariant and infrared-safe subset of the loop-induced contribution via Colour-Singlet (CS) transitions. We have found it to become the leading CS SPS contributions at large rapidity separation, yet too small to account for the data without invoking the presence of DPS yields. Second, we have surveyed the possible Colour-Octet (CO) contributions using both old and up-to-date non-perturbative long distance matrix elements (LDMEs). We have found that the pure CO yields crucially depend on the LDMEs. Among all the LDMEs we used, only two result into a visible modification of the NRQCD (CS+CO) yield, but only in two kinematical distributions measured by ATLAS, those of the rapidity separation and of the pair invariant mass. These modifications however do not impact the control region used for their DPS study.

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arXiv2019

Triple prompt $J/ψ$ hadroproduction as a hard probe of multiple-parton scatterings

We propose that the process of triple prompt $J/ψ$ hadroproduction is a very clean hard probe of multiple-parton scatterings at high-energy hadron colliders, especially the least known triple-parton scattering. A first complete study is carried out by considering single-, double-, and triple-parton scatterings coherently. Our calculation shows that it is a golden channel to probe double- and triple-parton scatterings, as the single-parton scattering is strongly suppressed. The predictions of the (differential) cross sections in proton-proton collisions at the LHC and the future higher-energy hadron colliders are given. Our study shows that its measurement is already feasible with the existing data collected during the period of the LHC run 2. A method is proposed to extract the triple-parton scattering contribution, and therefore it paves a way to study the possible triple-parton correlations in a proton.

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arXiv2019

Next-to-leading-order predictions for single vector-like quark production at the LHC

We propose simulation strategies for single production of third generation vector-like quarks at the LHC, implementing next-to-leading-order corrections in QCD and studying in detail their effect on cross sections and differential distributions. We also investigate the differences and the relative incertitudes induced by the use of the Four-Flavour Number Scheme ${\it versus}$ the Five-Flavour Number Scheme. As a phenomenological illustration, we concentrate on the production of vector-like quarks coupling to the third generation of the Standard Model in association with a jet and assuming standard couplings to gauge and Higgs bosons.

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arXiv2019

Associated Quarkonium Hadroproduction at High-Energy Colliders

Quarkonium production in proton-proton collision is interesting in profiling the partons inside the nucleon. Recently, the impact of double parton scatterings (DPSs) was suggested by experimental data of associated quarkonium production (J/psi+Z, J/psi+W, and J/psi+J/psi) at the LHC and Tevatron, in addition to single parton scatterings (SPSs). In this proceedings contribution, we review the extraction of the effective parameter of the DPS through the evaluation of the SPS contributions under quark-hadron duality.

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arXiv2019

Phenomenological NLO analysis of eta(c) production at the LHC in the collider and fixed-target modes

In view of the good agreement between the LHCb prompt-eta(c) data at sqrt(s)=7 and 8 TeV and the NLO colour-singlet model predictions --i.e. the leading v^2 NRQCD contribution--, we provide predictions in the LHCb acceptance for the forthcoming 13 TeV analysis bearing on data taken during the LHC Run2. We also provide predictions for sqrt(s)=115 GeV for proton-hydrogen collisions in the fixed-target mode which could be studied during the LHC Run3. Our predictions are complemented by a full theoretical uncertainty analysis. In addition to cross section predictions, we elaborate on the uncertainties on the p bar-p branching ratio --necessary for data-theory comparison-- and discuss other usable branching fractions for future studies.

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arXiv2019

Boosting perturbative QCD stability in quarkonium production

The aim of this paper is to introduce a general way to stabilize the perturbative QCD computations of heavy quarkonium production in the boosted or high-momentum transferring region with tree-level generators only. Such an approach is possible by properly taking into account the power-enhanced perturbative contributions in a soft and collinear safe manner without requiring any complete higher-order computations. The complicated NLO results for inclusive quarkonium hadroproduction can be well reproduced within our approach based on a tree-level generator {\sc\small HELAC-Onia}. We have applied it to estimate the last missing leading-twist contribution from the spin-triplet color-singlet S-wave production at $\mathcal{O}(α_s^5)$, which is a NNLO term in the $α_s$ expansion for the quarkonium $P_T$ spectrum. We conclude that the missing NNLO contribution will not change the order of the magnitude of the short-distance coefficient. Such an approach is also quite appealing as it foresees broad applications in quarkonium-associated production processes, which are mostly absent of complete higher-order computations and fragmentation functions.

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arXiv2018

Studying parton correlations via double parton scatterings in associated quarkonium production at the LHC and the Tevatron

Quarkonium production in proton-proton (pp) collision provides interesting means to study the parton content and their correlations in the proton. Recent LHC and Tevatron data of J/psi + Z, J/psi + W and J/psi +J/psi production suggest the relevance of double parton scatterings (DPSs) as opposed to single parton scatterings (SPSs). In this proceedings contribution, we review the corresponding SPS contributions and discuss their upper limits set up by quark-hadron duality. These allow us to perform an improved extraction of the DPS yields and of their implications.

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